Anna Turned Fourteen!

Yes, you heard me right... she's fourteen!  Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

I love big big birthday parties, but on the actual day of the real deal birth day, I prefer (and we've always done) just the four of us.

A favorite dinner, picked by the birthday girl, cooked at home, and homemade cake.

We'll have a grandparents party this weekend for Anna's birthday but I love just us too.

Anna picked "daddy's summer packets" for her dinner.



It's kind of like camping. But not really.



My birthday girl.





And we had cake and presents outside.



Love her happiness.





Homemade cards and poems are the very best part of birthdays.





and so is ripping open presents.

















She wanted a red velvet cake. I really thought that red velvet cakes were vanilla cakes or yellow cakes with red food coloring. But I did some baking research and found a wonderful recipe for an amazing red velvet cake that she loved!



and Abigail had her not allergic cake (with sprinkles)





We had a lovely time loving on Anna and celebrating all that she is to us.

Sometimes her birthday tugs at my heart. Well, not sometimes. Always it does. Because I wasn't there fourteen years ago. And because no one cared that she was born. And that there were no flowers, or happy calls to family and friends with her arrival into the world. No none cared to get a peek at her as an infant. But God was there. Right there with her. I know that He was with her the whole time I couldn't be. The beginning was rough but God had a plan. God had a plan. God had a plan. A glorious plan for her life. She just had to wait. And I am so blessed that He allowed me to be a part of that plan. Anna is truly a treasure. And she will be used by God to do great things in this world. I just know it. Happy birthday my darling daughter. Oh how I love you.